Arouca vs Sporting Braga Match Analysis and Prediction

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Arouca and Sporting Braga will have an encounter at the Estadio Municipal de Arouca on Sunday, with both sides looking to pick up a third win in a row in the Primeira Liga.

Having won in the last four meetings between the sides since 2016, the visitors will fancy their chances of claiming victory once again and maintaining their fine early form.

Arouca picked up their first set of successive Primeira Liga wins since their promotion in 2021, as they fought back from behing to defeat Santa Clara 2-1 last weekend.

Prior to that, Armando Evangelista’s side kicked off their new campaign with a humiliating 4-0 defeat away to Benfica on August 5 before returning home 10 dyas later to defeat Gil Vicente 1-0.

The Arouquenses are now unbeaten in each of their last seven games on home turf across all competitions, picking up five wins and three draws since a 1-0 defeat to Pacos de Ferreira back in March.

While Arouca seek to keep this fine run, their next task is against a Sporting Braga side who have won the last four encounters between the sides and are unbeaten in 13 of their last 14 meetings.

Meanwhile, Sporting Braga impressively defeated Maritimo to maintain their fine start to the new campaign as they claimed an emphatic 5-0 victory when the sides met last Sunday.

That followed a 3-0 victory over Famalicao at the Estadio Municipal de Famalicao on August 12, when a brace from Banza and Nuno Sequeira’s 13th-minute goal condemned the Vila Nova to a second consecutive defeat.

Artur Jorge’s side, who have now picked up seven points from their opening three matches of the new Primeira Liga, head into Sunday’s contest unbeaten in their last seven matches on the road, picking up five wins and two draws.

Arouca vs Sporting Braga head to head

The two teams have previously met on 14 occasions across all competitions, where Arouca have claimed one victory while Braga have won nine, and they have drawn in nine. Braga have scored 27 goals and conceded seven. In their last five meetings, Braga have won four while they have drawn once.

Arouca 1-1 Sporting Braga 02/10/16

Sporting Braga 3-1 Arouca 04/03/17

Arouca 0-6 Sporting Braga 30/12/21

Sporting Braga 1-0 Arouca 08/05/22

Sporting Braga 3-2 Arouca 12/07/22

Arouca latest home form

Arouca have recently been on a good run of form at home, as they have been unbeaten in their seven most recent matches. They managed to defeat Gil Vicente 1-0 in their last home game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored three goals and kept clean sheets.

Arouca 1-0 Portimonense 30/04/22

Arouca 0-0 Belenenses 14/05/22

Arouca 1-0 Feirense 20/07/22

Arouca 0-0 Chaves 23/07/22

Arouca 1-0 Gil Vicente 15/08/22

Arouca latest away form

Arouca managed to defeat Santa Clara 2-1 in their last away game in the league. However, they have recently failed to keep a good run of form on the road, having lost each of their previous five matches. In their last five matches, they have scored five goals and conceded 11.

Vizela 2-1 Arouca 22/04/22

Sporting Braga 1-0 Arouca 08/05/22

Sporting Braga 3-2 Arouca 12/07/22

Benfica 4-0 Arouca 05/08/22

Santa Clara 1-2 Arouca 20/08/22

Sporting Braga latest home form

Sporting Braga have recently been on a good run of form at home, having been unbeaten in their 10 most recent matches. They managed to defeat Maritimo 5-0 in their last home game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored 15 goals and conceded just five.

Sporting Braga 3-0 Middlesbrough 15/07/22

Sporting Braga 2-1 AFC Bournemouth 19/07/22

Sporting Braga 2-1 Celta Vigo 29/07/22

Sporting Braga 3-3 Sporting Lisbon 07/08/22

Sporting Braga 5-0 Maritimo 21/08/22

Sporting Braga latest away form

Sporting Braga have recently failed to keep a good run of form on the road, having won just two of their six most recent matches. They defeated Famalicao 3-0 in their last away game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored six goals and conceded five.

Estoril 0-0 Sporting Braga 18/04/22

Belenenses 0-1 Sporting Braga 30/04/22

Famalicao 3-2 Sporting Braga 15/05/22

Portimonense 2-0 Sporting Braga 23/07/22

Famalicao 0-3 Sporting Braga 12/08/22

Arouca news

Arouca will have to make do without the services of Nicola Galovic and Sema Velazquez, who are currently recovering from knee and ACL injuries respectively.

23-year-old forward Oday Dabbagh is yet to feature for the hosts this season due to injury and is out of contention for this Sunday’s contest.

Sporting Braga news

Sporting Braga will take to the pitch without Victor Gomez, who has missed the last two game after coming off with a first-half injury in the league opener against Sporting Lisbon.

Newly-signed forward Banza has scored four goals in the opening three games and should lead the attack once again alongside Oliveira.

Prediction and Odds

Having claimed victory over Gil Vicente and Santa Clara, Arouca will head into the weekend high in confidence as the seek to end their poor run against their visitors.

However, Sporting Braga possess the firepower to get the desired result this weekend and we back them for a win on Sunday.

Odds: 1 2.32 X 2.05 2 1.89